the life and death of a summer garden

over the course of my summer garden i took a series of photos to document the growth and subsequent decline of the garden.  the bed in the foreground has tomatoes and cucumbers.  the one in the background has lettuce, peppers, basil, and eggplant. below is a photo sequence of this season.  

may 1

 may 8 

 may 15

 may 22

 may 30

 jun 7

 jun 12

 jun 19

jul 11

 jul 18

 jul 30

 aug 16

 aug 21

 aug 28

 sep 4

 nov 5

nov 6

cullinary european tour

it's been awhile since my last post.  the main culprit is that i took a month long trip thru europe in september/ october.  to say the trip was much needed is an understatement.  i was fortunate enough to have a number of friends to stay with along the way, which always makes traveling more fun.  my travels took me to paris, berlin, florence, rome, and turkey (istanbul and antalya).  the food was varied and universally delicious.  as you can see from the following pictures i spent a good deal of time eating.  no sense in holding back when faced with so many delicious opportunities.  amazingly my clothes all still fit me on the way home :)

breakfast shortly after arriving in paris - pain au chocolate and cafe au lait

lunch and dessert at the wonderful 'la duree' - perfect for a rainy afternoon

temptations around every corner

a brief rest at the jardin du luxembourg

 might as well skip to the chase - this was actually our lunch at 'sans souci' - the former residence of frederick the great outside of berlin

view of the prinzessinnengarten - it is an urban garden in a vacant plot of land in the middle of berln.  we had an unbelievable four course dinner there consisting mostly of food grown in the garden.  i was so full i couldn't eat until dinner the next day.  it is a really extraordinary place - one of the highlights of my trip!  for more info go to http://prinzessinnengarten.net/about/

my first cappucino - in florence 

the best gelato in florence - 'percho no!' (why not!)

delectable foods at the market in rome 

markets in istanbul

turkish coffee - ready to read my fortune in the grounds

fresh squeezed pomegranate juice in antalya

another delicious dessert in paris to help round out the trip

winding down

the summer veggies are winding down.  by this point i usually am ready for the transition to fall. one of these years i hope to do some fall planting too.  there are lots of greens and other plants that can be planted for the fall.  but usually by this point i feel like i need a break from the garden so i just let the summer garden run its course. i'll be heading out of town soon too, so i've been spending the last week gathering up the remaining veggies and prepping them so that i can still use them in the coming months.

i first made a huge batch of pesto with my basil.  pesto freezes really easily.  amazingly i had enough of everything except the parmesan cheese to make all this pesto.  but i freeze it without the cheese so that worked out.  i think i'll have enough pesto to last until next summer's harvest.

the peppers and eggplants are still producing quite a bit.  after roasting about half a dozen peppers and then stuffing another half dozen i still had about 8 left.  peppers are easy to freeze.  i cut them into large pieces and then spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze.  once they were frozen, i put them in a plastic freezer bag.  freezing them like this keeps the pieces separate and easier to use.  

the eggplant required a little more work. after a little searching online i found out that they needed to be blanched.  i peeled and sliced them, then blanched them in water and a little lemon juice for 4 minutes.  after draining them i plunged them in an ice bath to stop the cooking.  then like the peppers, i froze them on a cookie sheet before putting them in a plastic bag.  they looked like eggplant popsicles, hmmm, not sure that seems too appetizing.  

 

hot hot hot

 

like many areas across the country this summer we've had quite a heat wave, especially the end of july and beginning of august.  while my tomatoes were languishing in the heat, my peppers were loving it.  as you can see i've got quite a crop of hot peppers.  the variety i am growing this year is called 'hungarian hot black pepper.'  they ripen to a typical red color, but before they do, they are a beautiful deep purple color.  they do have quite a kick as well.  these ones seem a little too fleshy to dry easily, but fortunately peppers freeze really well.  i just keep them in a freezer bag to use throughout the year.  

one interesting thing about the peppers is that one of the plants has peppers that are a much different shape than the others, even though they are supposed to be the same kind.  instead of jalepeno shaped, they are much smaller, about a half inch.  i've found that these ones dry easily, so i just let them dry on a ledge in my kitchen.

 

okra 2 ways

 

i'm a southern girl, and i love okra.  not only is it great to eat, but the blossoms are a gorgeous hibiscus-like shape.  i know a lot of people are turned off of okra because of the slime factor.  i agree that can be a bit hard to overcome, but there are 2 ways i love to eat it that have changed the minds of people who consider themselves non-okra eaters.  

i am growing two different types of okra.  a green one and a burgundy one.  there isn't any difference in the flavor, i just love the way the two compliment each other visually.

pickled okra

this is a quick easy way to prepare okra. for about 3/4 lb of okra (i've found that fills a quart mason jar), mix together in a saucepan 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, and then whatever spices you may have on hand.  good ones to use are fennel seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seed, and peppercorns.  i put in about a teaspoon of each.  bring to a boil and cook the mixture for a couple minutes making sure the salt and sugar dissolve.  then pour the mixture over the raw okra (i like to combine it all in a mason jar), along with a hot pepper that has been cut in half.  if you have fresh dill, add a few sprigs as well.  let cool and then store in the refrigerator.  they will keep for a couple weeks.  i like to just eat them straight out of the jar.  they have a wonderful crunchy texture and vinegary flavor.  

 

 

roasted okra

this is such a simple way to prepare okra, but you have to endure having your oven on, which in the summer isn't the most comfortable thing to do. 

heat oven to 400 degrees.  toss okra (keep them whole!) with some olive oil, and salt.  if you have fresh herbs like basil or mint, tear a handful over the okra as well.  roast in a baking dish, or baking sheet for 15 to 20 minutes or until they have softened and are getting a little brown.  stir them once half way through the cooking.  

fried squash blossoms

zucchini and squash plants are notorious for providing so many copious vegetables that by midsummer you are begging anyone, friends, neighbors, strangers to just take some off your hands.  but there's more to a squash plant than the vegetable (well, technically the fruit).  

years ago in italy, i had fried zucchini blossoms and since then have been wanting to try to recreate the delicacy for myself.  this summer, i took to the internet to figure out the proper way of preparing them.  squash and zucchini plants are monoecious, meaning they bear both male and female flowers.  the actual squash fruit comes from the female flowers.  i had always assumed that to make fried squash blossoms you'd be sacrificing some of the fruits by taking away the flowers, but it turns out the male flowers are supposed to taste better, so that is what you use.  it's easy to tell the difference because the female flowers have the fruit forming at the base of them. 

i picked about 10 flowers from my plants (i picked the ones where the blooms were still closed).  the recipes i found said to pinch out the stamen in the middle of the bloom, which was a bit difficult to do without tearing the blossom.  you also want to check inside the blossom to make sure there aren't any renegade insects trapped in there.

i decided that i wanted to stuff the blossoms with something before frying them.  the first time i made them i used homemade ricotta (so simple to make, and absolutely delicious)!  the second time i used goat cheese.  i didn't realize until i began stuffing the blossoms that i had bought goat cheese with honey, but it actually turned out quite well.  the sweetness of the honey was a nice foil to the fried blossoms.  

one trick i learned after the first time i made them was to make sure the ends of the blossoms were twisted shut well.  in fact i even used a little of the cheese as 'glue' to keep them shut.  otherwise you risk them opening and having the cheese come out while they are frying.  i made a simple batter of flour and beer, coated them and then put them in an inch of oil heated to about 350 degrees.  the hardest part was just keeping the oil around that temperature. 

once they turned golden brown, after just a couple minutes, i took them out, set them on a paper towel and sprinkled them with salt.  that was it.  a perfect summer treat.

intro to canning

i spent a good part of this weekend working on a sewing project (a dress) and canning my home grown tomatoes.  if it weren't the fact that i'm typing away on my computer and listening to music streaming through my cell phone i might actually believe i was living in the 1950's.  

prior to this weekend, i had never canned before.  i had never even been present to look over someone else's shoulder to watch what they were doing in the canning process.  so instead, armed with a book about canning i set up my canning supplies in my kitchen and crossed my fingers.  

 

this past week i harvested 32 lbs of tomatoes.  considering they go for about $3/ lb at the local farmers market, that's nearly $100 of tomatoes.  i ate plenty of them fresh off the vine, but was still left with more than i could possible eat in a week.   

after reading through some canning recipes i decided to make a batch of tomato sauce to can and also just can some tomatoes by themselves.  i first attempted the sauce. once the sauce was cooked, i set up my canning pot and another large pot to heat the jars in.  i definitely maxed out the capacity of my stove top. 

 

filling the jars was the part i was most nervous about.  not having done this before, it felt like there were so many crucial steps involved to make sure that the jars would seal properly and that the contents wouldn't harbor some harmful bacteria.  a little botulism is not a good thing to have. i made it through, however, and filled 4 quart jars and 2 pint jars with my sauce.  i then submerged the sealed jars in a boiling pot of water for 40 minutes. after that, i lifted them out of the water and set them on the counter to cool overnight.  soon after pulling them out of the water, i heard the reassuring sound of the lids sealing into place.

 

the next day i attempted canning just plain, peeled tomatoes. the canning book said to pack the tomatoes tightly in the jar and then fill the jar with boiling water up to 1/2 inch from the top.  i thought i was packing them in tight, however, once the canning process was over, it was apparent that i didn't get them in tightly enough.  my jars of tomatoes looked more like specimens in a biology lab.  not very appetizing.  so i decided to try it again, this time packing more tomatoes in the jars.  my first attempt yielded 5 pint jars, the second attempt, i got them all in just 2 pint jars. they looked much better the second time around.  lesson learned.  

in all i think it was successful, but i guess i won't really know until i go to open one of the jars.  the lids all feel like they are securely attached, so i'm hopeful.  i will say that it definitely heats up the kitchen having all those pots of boiling water going.  maybe not the smartest thing to do on a hot summer weekend - my cats sure languished in the heat.